Saturday, 26 November 2016

The health specialist advises everyone to eat more vegetables and fruit
as part of our staple diet. But to do that we all must understand the yearly
season they are available and understand the dilemma that the farmer goes
through to deliver your fruit and vegetables to your store. Knowing the
seasonal plan of availability of fruit and vegetables also helps with your
shopping menu plan as the health authorities insist that we must consume 5 a day fruit and veg.

By rotating the
crop you will also lessen the chance of the land becoming tired and drained of nutrients
because of continual use of the same crops in the same place, hence the popular
use of crop rotation.

Ventilate the
bags of the veggies stored also, pack veggies and fruits loosely, whether
in the refrigerator, as the closer they are to each other, the more
quickly they will rot.

Almost all
fruits and vegetables can be stored in the freezer, in small pieces on
sheet trays, or in airtight containers, this includes herbs.

Garlic, onions:
store at room temperature in a well-ventilated area

Cucumbers: store
above 50°F, If refrigeration is necessary, limit to 1-3 days before
eating.

Spinach: store
as quickly as possible, Spinach likes the cold. 4 days

Potatoes: store
in a cool (45°F to 50°F) and dark place, using perhaps a brown paper bag,
so as to prevent the spuds from sprouting.

Bell peppers:
refrigerate, as they will only deteriorate if left out of the
refrigerator.

Carrots: snip the
carrot greens to keep them from sapping nutrients from the carrot roots.
Note, there is the option of storing the greens separately. Place carrots
in a closed container with plenty of moisture, either wrapped in a damp
towel, or dunk them in cold water every couple of days. 2 weeks

Tomatoes: store
unwashed at room temperature in a well-ventilated area. A few days

Plums, peaches,
and pears: store at room temperature. Ripening can be accelerated in a
brown bag.

Tuesday, 8 November 2016

Womens Fashion Boutique SovaCollection has emulated the
style and fashion from the meaning coined from the French word “Boutique”
(shop), which represents the small business shop that curates the products of
fashion stylish designer clothing
and handmade jewellery created and showcased to offer a touch of unusual
pieces of quality made Jewellery and exudes the passion of something different
in the fashion market place..

Our passion is part of the past designers fashion mind
set, to innovate and emancipate the freedom of abstract art in fashion
designing. Just as the shops of the 1960’s did in London,Carnaby Streetand Kings Road, which were the
centre piece of media attention that
witnessed the transition of a new fashion generation era of fashionable stores of
our time.

The Boutique is the fashion Mecca for new ideas, just as the fashion
stylist movement for progressive ideas was started by Mary Quant who defined
targeting marketing products such as the famous mini skirt, hot pants and thigh
length boots, which she dominated in the Independent sector of fashion.

With Boutiques you culture the freedom of graduate
young fashion designers to create avant-garde pieces
to challenge mainstream fashion. Boutiques that are the platform for innovation
and creativity,

Otherwise assimilated retail high
street mainstream fashion tends to stifle young talented fashion designers from
being imaginative and creative in thought and ideas for the next big thing.

The sixties symbolised liberalism and
freedom of expression. We need to carry this tradition on and to help keep
nurture individual innovation that Mary Quant and many other boutique styles in
fashion created.

Boutique shops are positioned in the Independent sector
market place, they specializes in small quantity one of garments, hand-made items;
accessory crafted unique products, art crafted produced unusual T-shirts,
stickers, and other Fashion Accessories.

Retail High Street Clothing stores are marketed differently
to Fashion Boutiques, Retail stores are larger and their volume of stock are
mass produced, compared to a Fashion Boutique that intentionally set-up their Boutique
shops differently from mainstream high street shops, to create a unique niche
in the market.

There shops are distinct in size and the clothes line
and accessories they sell are special edition (one-off) designed and the volume
of stock invariably limited due to the designer creativity being either from a
collection or a one off line fashion line.

Either way for the shopper, this is the store to find
clothing that is not on the high street, or part of the mainstream trend. It’s
an Aladdin’s cave full of unusual styles for the discerning wearer to evolve a
new style trend and to stand out from the crowd.

A Boutique displays
prized garments that have been fashioned by the designer with the intention to
convert those shoppers seeking the next big thing, with the benefit to the
customer having the full attention from either the designer who created those beautiful
pieces of art.

Although Fashion
Boutiques are on the decline on the high street, just as the 60’s wave of Boutiques
graced the streets of London, the few Boutiques that are out there still survives
on the Independent Market, not competing against the big high street retailers,
but by providing a clear market niche of what the customers want and provides a
close relationship with customers.

Survival in the
current market is positively assured, testament to this are seen in this news
article I came acrossIndependent Retailers (BySean Hargrave).

Wednesday, 2 November 2016

There has been an increase of late on the internet of criminal phishing activity of
spoof emails targeting PayPal customers.

The email contains a link
to a fake PayPal log-in website which obtains the customer details using a data
capture program, including your username / password and security answer to questions,
to enable access to your account. They are feeding of customer’s uncertainty
when being approached by such emails. An example of such a phishing email is
below:-

Although
there is an official PayPal logo, tell-tale signs can be seen by the way the
email starts with “Important we’re concerned that someone” and then the email leads
you to take action by clicking on Log in to confirm your account, all
to get you to open there the link that is a Trojan
horse key logger program which will
then install on your computer in order to gain access to your personal
information from your PayPal account.

PayPal
will never ask customers to disclose information by an email; all communication
will always take place on the official website platform for PayPal and ONLY via
a secure SSL (green padlock) connection and only when you are safely logged in,
that any communication will take place. Other than that best advice is do not
interact with a suspicious email and take the following action below-:

·At all cost DO NOT OPEN THAT LINKYOU SHOULD
report it immediately by forwarding the whole email to the address below:-

Monday, 31 October 2016

Wash care

Always check the garment's care label instructions before
starting. Remember that delicate items are usually less soiled than
heavier-duty garments and require a minimum of handling during the washing
process.

Hand washing may feel foreign to many of us as we are so used
to having the use of a washing machine, although it still maybe the case with
some people who do not have a washing machine, otherwise the instructions are still the same.

When it comes to our valued garments, wash care of garments
can be can be somewhat confusing but the first place to find out is your local
dry cleaner who can advise on your care label washing recommendation.

Dry Cleaning

A rule of the
thumb that I use is that your treasured garments should generally be dry
cleaned.

When you take an item to the dry cleaner, you need to be
specific about your concerns and ask how the cleaner plans to approach cleaning
your garment. As an extra precaution get them to test your garment before commencing.

To further calm your doubts, ask your
dry cleaner if he has insurance, to cover reimbursement for damage or offers a
guarantee. If not, you may later feel uncomfortable asking a small-business
owner to re-reimburse £2,000 to replace your ruined expensive garment.

5 Steps | To Hand Washing your
Evening Dress

Prepare Your Clothes for Washing

Prior to washing your garment, you will need the following items to wash
and dry your garment.

Step 1

The bath is large enough to fit your evening dress or garment.
Run a bath of cold/lukewarm water. Add a small amount of non-biological liquid
detergent. Stir the water to dissolve the detergent until bubbles can be seen.

Step 2

Submerge the evening dress into water and gently stir it around
to loosen any dirt. Hand-wash your garment lightly and do
not let it stay in the water for a long period of more than a couple of
minutes. Do not twist or wring the embellished garment.

Step 3

Drain the soapy water and refill with clean cold water. Gently stir the
evening dress around to remove the soap. Repeat until the dress is free from
soap residue. Embellishment can get tangled up with delicate fabric during
washing, therefore try not to stir the dress around too much

Step 4

The best
method to dry your dress is to air dry it. Zip up the dress and close all the
hooks and buttons. Do not place it in direct sunlight because your clothing
might fade and the sunlight will decrease the adhesive that your embellishment
is attached to. Carefully turn the evening dress inside out and place in shady
and breezy area flat on a clothes dryer.

Step 5

Keep
your embellished garment in a place in your closet (wardrobe) where it won't
rub against other articles of clothing.

It’s
best to use a plastic cover over your garment to keep it safe from dust and to
protect the embellished stones.

Keep the
item separate from the rest of your clothes in order to keep it looking nice.

Spot
cleaning Tip

Soft damp cloth

Tough stain or oil based then use a laundry detergent

Gently dab the area with the stain with your soft clean cloth, apply more detergent by rinsing cloth for tougher stains

Once the stain is removed place the garment on a towel to dry

IRONING
an Embellished Dress

About ironing
embellished clothing; “NEVER LET THE IRON COME IN DIRECT CONTACT
WITH STONES OR THE FABRIC AROUND THEM”.

Before ironing,
you will need to use a piece of cotton fabric that you place between the
iron and the garment, to stop overheating and burning the garment denoted
by a shiny surface.

Move the cotton
cloth with the iron.

Keep your iron
on medium heat and do not let the fabric or the stones get to hot...It
will melt the adhesive and the stone will reposition itself and leave a
not fixable glue smear.

Its best to iron
the fabric as directed, but do it a section at a time. You will iron the
front and before moving the fabric to iron the next area, let it sit for 5
minutes and cool down. This way you can be assured the glue if it did
start to melt won't run or smear when the item is moved. If your
embellishments are large do not put the iron on them even with the cotton
fabric. You will have to go around them with the iron.

I hope you now have a better understanding how to
care for your embellished evening dresses. When you give all the attention it
needs, you’ll be rewarded with an investment that last a long time. Make your
embellished evening dress worth it!

Summary

Never throw rhinestone embellished clothing in the washing machine, they may or may not survive.

Wash them by hand in cold water mild detergent

Rinse well

Don't twist or wring the item.

After washing place the dress on a clothes dryer and air dry (as illustrated).

Dry cleaning is not usually recommended for rhinestone embellished clothing. Check with your local dry cleaner some items may be able to be cleaned.

Tuesday, 25 August 2015

Mini
Skirts and Mini Dresses

Alot is said that wearing miniskirts and their lengths is related to the age you
are as to whether you look good or bad in them, you can’t put age on fashion,
the media drum up surveys and decide that a section of supposed people have
voted that women over the certain age should not wear miniskirts as it’s
immoral. If women are confidant and feel happy to wear it, then the question is
answered to the critics out there.

With all clothes, it's about wearing the
clothes according to your body shape is what it's all about, make no bones
about it, you still can be very young and still not have the shape to carry off
wearing a mini or micro mini skirt.

It's knowing the balance of your body shape
and dressing accordingly to show off your best attributes. Alot of times women
get it right anyway.

But with a little subtlety, you can carry it
off, such as wearing midi skirt; by wearing a skirt length just over the knees
will accentuate your leg length especially if you are not confident with exposing
your knees. If you have the calves shape them with a pencil skirt

A mini-skirt hemline is well above the knees no longer than 10 cm
(4 in) below the buttocks

A mini dress is a dress with the same hemline as the mini skirt

A micro-mini skirt or micro skirt hemline is at
the upper thigh level or just below crotch level.

Tuesday, 11 August 2015

Since July 2005, Etsy was founded and is a peer-to-peer e-commerce website focused on handmade or vintage items and supplies, as well as unique factory-manufactured items. These items cover a wide range, including art, photography, clothing, jewellery, food, bath and beauty products, quilts, knick-knacks, and toys. Many sellers also sell craft supplies such as beads, wire and jewellery-making tools. All vintage items must be at least 20 years old. The site follows in the tradition of open craft fairs, giving sellers personal store fronts to showcase and sell their products.For the past 2 or 3 years Etsy has been toying around changing the principle word of Handmade, by trying to sell the idea to prospective art craft people that they need to re-define the meaning of this to try and accommodate a bigger market share by bringing in the big money pocket manufacturers. We all know how the wheel was built; trying to convince re-making the wheel by justifying working methods of the past is to my thinking a little lame.We are finding more and more that pressure is being applied to companies that need to fulfil the company boards pockets every year as the market share from other competitive companies get more popular. There has been a great increase year by year of long standing online store holders of Etsy deciding to up-sticks and leave, due to the increasing take over in the most popular Handmade Item store online by manufacturers (Asia Companies), flooding the stores with items that have been mass produced and holding superior stock holdings to slowly take over the store front and to force out the Handmade craft artists.I would like to advocate for the Handmade Designer Jewellery artists out there because for what they are doing it's amazing and they deserve a higher platform to showcase their work for everyone to see. Yes Etsy has been a great advocate for the handmade artisans, for the past few years, but I'm afraid they are turning to the bigger conglomerate and discarding the principle that they began their platform and abandoning the handmade fraternity.It’s very strange, but many people may rebuff my comments, but why is it that the likes of Amazon have recently started to create a separate Market Place on their site dedicated to TRUE Handicraft artists.